The Farmer's Guide to the Internet
is the first publication of TVA Rural
Studies. It was chosen for the initial
effort because we believe it is a
valuable product in itself. But just as
importantly, it serves as a model for the
operating philosophy of TVA Rural Studies
as a whole. To the typical "real
world" problem facing rural
communities, the Farmer's Guide to the
Internet offers a market-oriented

solution that can be immediately applied by
interested individuals. The objective of our
entire research agenda is precisely that:
searching for practical
"people-oriented" solutions that are
ready to use.

It is not accidental that
issues of rural information access help define
this larger agenda. In November of 1994, when the
Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors
established a research center to explore issues
shaping the future of rural America, a guiding
question was whether rural communities would
progress or fall further behind as a result of
the intense pressures of accelerating information
and communications technologies. Equally
important was the question of how TVA can help
rural communities and businesses use new
technology to improve their condition.

Seeing a direct analogy to TVA's earliest
mission, the Board recognized that electronically
transmitted information will fuel wealth
generation in the years ahead just as electricity
did in the 1930's and 40's. Then, as now, the
issue was "will access to the most basic raw
material of economic advance be equitably
distributed or will we divide into two
America's--plugged in urban populations and
disconnected rural ones?"

To deal with these challenges, the objective
of the Farmer's Guide to the Internet goes beyond
helping farmers to have quick access to the
information necessary for them to run their
businesses, though that is a significant goal in
itself. The larger intention, from TVA Rural
Studies' point of view, is to help build a user
base in rural communities sufficient to make the
rural delivery of Internet service by commercial
companies profitable at competitive market
prices.

The farm community is an appropriate starting
point. It is, by definition, a business conducted
in a rural area, and, by general agreement, it is
a significant component in the structure of rural
life. Many of the farm-related sites laid out in
the Guide will clearly be of interest to rural
citizens who are not directly engaged in farming.
Moreover, we plan to reorganized the information
gathered in the first half of the book and
distribute it in manuals for rural teachers,
rural bankers, rural manufacturers, etc.,
supplemented in each case with directories of
relevant Web sites and their addresses.

In the next few years, TVA Rural Studies will
bring the same paradigm and values to a variety
of other pressing rural issues: work force
development and employment policy, the
consequences of electricity deregulation,
promoting expanded entrepreneurship in rural
manufacturing, reconciling natural resource use
with environmental stewardship and improving our
understanding of the forces leading to economic
growth and decline..

These are the kinds of issues that will shape
the future of rural America. And they will shape
it for the better if individual rural citizens
are armed with practical solutions like the
Farmer's Guide to the Internet and the other
research products that TVA Rural Studies will
work to provide in the years ahead.

David Freshwater
Program Manager
TVA Rural Studies

Visit our purchasing
department for more information about
ordering copies of the Farmer's Guide to the
Internet.

Please send any comments or
questions about this site to ukrs@rural.org.